Friday, January 23, 2015

I stitched with DMC floss per the designer except I substituted her choice of 746 Off White, which I felt had too much of a yellow cast to it, & used 712 instead. I can't take credit for this. Carol (Stitching Dreams) made this substitution a couple years ago when she stitched this design. I must admit that whenever I am going to stitch something, I go to Carol's blog to see if she has stitched it, what substitutions (if any) she has made, & how she's finished it. She is so amazingly creative & talented. If I believed in reincarnation, I would want to come back & be Carol : )

If you are familiar with this design, you might notice that I left a part of it out. There are supposed to be some little white stitches along the outside of the design. You can see them here on the model photo.

My stitches would not show up. They just disappeared into the background. I am guessing this is because I was making them on 40 ct using 1 strand over 2. John says my finish looks fine without them. Do you agree?

I don't know what I'm going to stitch next. I have a bunch of charts I copied from the 2014 JCSCO magazine & my plan today is to pull threads & fabrics for them. I never liked making kits of designs because I have always stitched what calls to me at the moment I'm looking for something to stitch. However, when I had my first heart surgery back in 2013, I kitted a bunch of things to work on during my recovery because I knew I wasn't going to be able to walk up & down stairs for a while. I'm not sure but I think I kitted about 20 designs. They were all things I knew I wanted to stitch sometime, & with so many to choose from it wasn't difficult to find something that called to me when I needed a new project. Somewhat surprisingly, I had 2 or 3 designs kitted that I kept pushing to the back of the line. Eventually I realized I didn't like them as much as I thought I had so I un-kitted them : )

Since I'll be digging through my fabrics today I hope to also get them organized & cataloged. I did this maybe 2 years ago, but little by little I've been letting things slide to where I've got fabrics tossed hither & thither which is not very efficient. I don't even remember the last time I cataloged anything, so this may be more of a weekend project.

Another thing I have to do is go through my stash again ... making sure it is properly organized & cataloged ... & weed out charts & kits I no longer want to stitch. I de-stashed three times last year ... three times ... & here I am planning to do it again. I have taken a bunch of photos & have done a lot of scanning of last year's de-stashed items & will be listing them on eBay in the hopefully not too distant future.

When I returned to the wonderful world of cross stitching back in 2011, I wasn't quite sure what I was doing & I ended up buying practically any & every chart & kit that caught my eye ... thus the need for de-stashing. I don't buy like that anymore, but I recently did purchase a new ornament design & it is calling to me to start it ... NOW! Lol!

Designer: The Little Stitcher

Design: Little Red Bird

I hope that Laura doesn't mind me using her photo. Isn't it a beautiful design? You know me ... I love birds : )

The aforementioned Carol did a post not long ago, & when I saw something outside my back door on Wednesday it made me think of her post & I took a few photos. Can you see what I saw in this first photo?

Probably not ... lol! You can see it in this next photo though ... that little speck of red in the center : )

I didn't notice until I downloaded these photos this morning that there 3 other things there that I hadn't seen when I took the photos. Can you see them? Here's a closer view.

Not only a cardinal, but 3 white-crowned sparrows! Isn't it funny how the brain works? I was so focused on getting a photo of the cardinal that I totally missed seeing the sparrows! This kind of ties in with an episode of Perception which John & I watched last night. I think Perception is one of the most wonderful shows ever ... & this particular episode was about "inattentional blindness" which is what happened to me ... & maybe to you ... seeing the cardinal but missing the sparrows. All the Perception shows are so interesting. I would sign up for college if I could attend Daniel's classes : )

I don't have any big plans for the weekend ... just the organizing, reorganizing, & stitching I mentioned earlier. I am also going to be trying to get used to my new glasses which I picked up from the optician this morning. I have such a difficult time with glasses. My nose is rather bridge-less as well as super-sensitive, so I spend an enormous amount of time trying to find a pair of glasses that (A) will stay on my nose, & (B) won't hurt. I'm beginning to think a butterfly landing on my nose would be painful for me. I purchased a pair of what are supposedly the lightest weight glasses available but right now I feel like I've got an anvil on my nose. I'm also questioning the new prescription. My eye doctor insists that I need bifocals. I would gladly wear them, but the no-line ones always make everything distorted no matter how long I try to get used to them, & the lined ones are no better. I feel that I see things in the distance perfectly fine. I saw that cardinal in that pine tree while standing at the back door. When I watched Perception last night, I knew when I was seeing Daniel & I knew when I was seeing Lewicki. When I'm driving down the road, I can see pedestrians & oncoming traffic & I can tell the difference between the two. I can read billboards & see stop signs, & I know when a light is green or red. When I pass by some livestock, I know if I'm looking at cows or horses or sheep. But my eye doctor insists I need bifocals & he gets rather miffed when I tell him I only want a prescription for computer glasses. He just writes the bifocal prescription & I think the optician just kind of guesses at a computer prescription. I'll give them a few days & hopefully things will work themselves out.

Sorry to have rambled ... lol! I wish you all a very restful weekend! You'll need one after reading all this : )

Thursday, January 15, 2015

It's a bit blustery today & the cardinals are queuing in the pussy willow bush awaiting their turn at the feeder : )

It's so nice to see a bit of snow on the ground & the snowflakes falling ... those big fat fluffy flakes of Prozac that fall from the sky : ) It's a good day to snuggle down & do some stitching or some knitting, or maybe just curl up in the recliner with a good book & a bunch of munchies. I'm not concerned about losing the weight I gained over Christmastime yet & yesterday I ordered some of my all-time favorite candies.

I should have paid for overnight shipping. Surely there is an unlimited supply of these candies in heaven : ) Note that these gummi bears are the mini gummi bears. I don't like the regular size ones, but the minis are out of this world!!!

I'm drooling all over the keyboard. Maybe I'll go bake a cake & some cookies to tide me over until UPS arrives : )

Friday, January 9, 2015

After not stitching for several weeks due to a nasty experience which made it impossible for me to even pick up a needle, I'm once again happily finding enjoyment in this humble pastime : ) This week's finishes are from two "kits" (chart & fabric).

Design: Dear Rudolph

Designer: Lizzie*Kate

Fabric: 32 ct Lambswool linen

Floss: DMC

Design: A Little Christmas

Designer: Lizzie*Kate

Fabric: Unidentified

Floss: DMC

Most of you reading this know that I'm not a big Lizzie*Kate fan. Now before you start leaving me hateful comments, let me explain. I think she's a marvelous designer. Truly gifted. I especially like her Christian themes which have shown up in recent years. It's just that her designs are a bit too "cutesy" for me most of the time.

I'm not much of a pastels person, so after pulling floss & beginning to stitch A Little Christmas, I was a bit concerned & thought "Oh dear, I'm not going to like this at all." However, I am very pleased with it! In case you missed it, it's one of those Christian themed designs I mentioned : )

Needless to say, both scans of the finishes leave a bit to be desired, but you get the idea.

Last night I started another kit (a full kit this time) ... Noel House by Chessie & Me. Here's a scan of the design from the Silver Needle's website. I plan to finish mine as ... what else? ... an ornament : ) I see satin stitches in the photo, & the chart directions include a graph on how to make a Smyrna cross. I'm already planning to replace those "fiddly" stitches when the time comes, but who knows. Maybe I'll feel a bit "fiddly" when I reach those points : )

Friday, January 2, 2015

In my post on December 30, I indicated that I would be creating several new pages here on my blog where I would have all my finishes, goodies given, & goodies received in one place. That's the idea anyway : ) I've made a good start though. At the top of my sidebar you will see a section titled Pages. I tried listing them under the header but some of my page titles are too long ... lol! The new pages I have listed now are Christmas Exchanges & Gifts from Me to Others - 2014, & Christmas Exchanges & Gifts from Others to Me - 2014, along with my Wish List. I am now going to start working on a page for the other stitched items I finished in 2014, & I will start a Finishes 2015 page as well so I can add to that as each finish is accomplished.